MY BOOKS

I wrote my first poem when I was in grade two, and read it out at school assembly.

My young adult novel Letters to Leonardo (published by Walker Books Australia in July 2009) took me over ten years to write.

Met my best friends in high school and we have shared a lot of bad hair days since then.

Favourite sport is golf, and I would play a lot better if story ideas didn’t keep leaping into my head just before I hit the ball.

People think I’m mildly crazy because I travelled around Australia for nearly two years in tents with my husband and two sons under three. (But we had heaps of fun. I rode camels in the outback and would like to own a camel one day.)

Writing has always been a big thing in my life, and I have worked as a journalist and advertising copywriter.

My muse is a black goat called Molly.

Email me at Dee@deescribe.com.au

MY BOOKS

Is the bush harsh, isolated and unforgiving? Or a thing of beauty?

A Duel of Words follows the debate between Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson in 1892 as they sought to define an Australian identity.

A Duel of Words is available in paperback or hardback fom Pearson Education Australia www.pearsoned.com.au

Hanna lives in a small village in Uganda, Africa with her mother and sisters. Her father has left and Hanna must look after her sick mother.

But how will Hanna manage if her mother doesn’t get better? Food is scarce and rebels attack her village looking for children to join the rebel army.

Will Hanna be able to stay safe, go to school, and follow her dream to become a doctor? Hope for Hanna has wonderful illustrations by Kylie Dunstan. It is available in paperback from Pearson Education Australia.

Letters to Leonardo is a story about a boy who gets a card on his fifteenth birthday from the mother he thought was dead.

Feeling betrayed by both his parents, Matt’s life is in disarray. He starts writing letters to Leonardo Da Vinci as a way of sorting out the ‘mess’ in his head.

Themes of life, art, loss, grief and mental illness are woven into this story which parallels the lives of two people who lived 500 years apart.

Letters to Leonardo was released by Walker Books Australia on 1st July 2009. ISBN: 9781921150883.

I wrote Harry’s Goldfield Adventure a very long time ago, then rewrote it recently using all the good things I have learned about writing over the last few years, and now this book has been published:-)

Many thanks for your advice on Kidlitosphere on the book search for ‘The Little Grammar People’ by Nuri Mass. I didn’t find it on the website your advised, but I hope I will one day find this interesting book. Now I am going to have a look at your website. Greetings from Belgium, Paula

Hi, Dee, I found the book but it is very expensive. Now I am sleepless 🙂
Many thanks. Lovely website. My daughter wants to become a writer, so I will download some of your advice and talk it over with her.